North Texas Basketball Officials Association (NTBOA)

This week we are going to look at some duties that by rule, are required by the referee/official. A lot of these duties are often not followed, but it is important that you understand these are part of our responsibility and we need to perform them.

Often teams do not return from their locker room after half time has ended in a timely fashion. In order to prevent this delay, rule 2.4.4 states the referee shall be responsible for having each team notified three minutes before each half is to begin. Be sure and work with teams in this regard to prevent delays.

A common miss-conception amongst referees is that we are not supposed to communicate to coaches when they are out of timeouts. However, in the officials' manual, 3.4.4.B states that officials shall notify a coach when that team has used its allotted time-outs. If a team is out of time-outs, sometimes I hear that you should ignore a time-out request by the team that is out so you won't have to penalize them. However, in the official's manual, 3.4.4.A.10 states a request for an excessive time-out shall be granted, but it is penalized with a technical foul.

At a varsity game this year the head coach made a habit of doing mass substitutions (4 or 5 players at a time) every 2 - 3 minutes. This got confusing to the visiting team as they couldn't keep track of who to guard. After about the 3rd time, the visiting coach asked for a match-up. He wanted his players to line up against the opposing team so it was clear who was guarding whom. Rule 3.3.1.E states that a request of a defensive match-up is allowed if three or more substitutes from the same team enter during an opportunity to substitute.

Is it a rule that the referee has to check the books before game time to make sure that everything is correct? The mechanics book states in 4.2.1.C.1 with 10:00 minutes on clock, the Referee will go to scorer's table and check score book, talk with scorer & timer and check game balls. The Referee checks the book for the legal numbers per rule 3.4.3.D. All you have to do is check is make sure they are all legal numbers. If the referee does the above, he/she has completed his/her duty for as the score book goes. Teams are supposed to have this completed in the book by the 10:00 mark, but we all know when there double headers with the girls or jv's playing first, the second game the scorers are trying to get that all put in the book and most of the time it doesn't happen before the 10:00 minute mark so just make sure it is checked as soon as possible after that point and defiantly before the game starts. If you have time it is a courtesy to have each coach check the book to make sure it is right. I think this is good preventive officiating because no one wants to start the game out with a technical foul.

When a player is injured, the mechanics manual sates 3.4.7.A if a player is injured, an official's time-out shall be declared when necessary to protect the player. When appropriate or necessary, the bench should be beckoned immediately. When bench personnel enters the court, the injured player must leave the game until the next opportunity to re-enter after the clock has started unless a time-out is called by his/her team. Please keep in mind that per rule 3.3.7, if players from both teams are directed to leave the game because of injury/blood, both teams must request and be granted a time-out in order to keep each player in the game.

Finally, in regards to unruly fan behavior, the UIL has sent out the following information: "We don't want to give any technicals to any teams for unruly fan or fans. Always let the Administrator handle unruly fans and be sure and report it to UIL on an incident report the next day. Should things escalate, follow this four step process:
1. Administration handles one fan or fans if he/she knows who it is.
2. If Administration doesn't know who or what fans then administration will announce on PA that if the problem continues the gym will be cleared.
3. If gym is to be cleared then players, coaches, and officials will go to dressing room until everyone is out of the gym.
4. Teams, coaches, officials, table staff, and admin will be the only ones left in the gym to finish the game."